‘Clockwork Planet’ Season 2 Release Date: Light Novel/Manga Spoilers Let’s Anime Fans See Beyond Episode 12

The Clockwork Planet Season 2 release date can’t come any sooner since anime fans were left hanging with many major questions unanswered. Who is this god-like Y? Was there a reason for the villain in the first season to be so mad at the creator of this mechanical Earth? Clockwork Planet Episode 12 didn’t provide those answers but fortunately, writers Tsubaki Himana (Sunday Without God and Lance ‘N Masques) and Yuu Kamiya (No Game No Life) provided a better explanation within the light novel series.

Clockwork Planet Light Novel Barely Covers The Anime

Any decent anime needs plenty of source material to draw upon or else we’ll end up with original anime content, which can be either good or bad. In the case of this anime, the first season definitely seemed to end with the expectation of Clockwork Planet Season 2 coming out in the future. The main characters are busy stealing a battleship with plans to become the Pirate King travel the planet and fix any malfunctioning gears.

The ending of anime pretty much lines up with the book Clockwork Planet Volume 3. There were many significant differences between the anime and light novel, which will be discussed in the spoilers section below, but otherwise, the main characters did end up taking on Thailand’s military ships somewhere in the oceans of Southeast Asia. (Oh, and AnchoR voiced her support of “Papa” over “Mama” at first. Marie Bell Breguet is forced to stay near the “pervert” because AnchoR literally can’t go beyond a certain distance from master Naoto Miura.)

Fortunately, there’s still more source material being published. Clockwork Planet Volume 4 was released in Japanese on December 29, 2015. At one time there were multiple Clockwork Planet English translation projects but most of them were taken down because the series has been licensed by North American publisher J-Novel Club as of June 1, 2017. You can read the first part of Clockwork Planet Volume 1 on J-Novel Club’s website for free right now! The Clockwork Planet English dub is also available on Funimation’s site. There’s also an ongoing Clockwork Planet manga that can be purchased on Crunchyroll.

Clockwork Planet Season 2 Release Date

As of this publishing, anime production company Xebec has not announced anything official about the Clockwork Planet Season 2 release date, although this article will be updated as soon as the anime sequel is confirmed. However, there can be reasonable speculation about when, or if, the Clockwork Planet Season 2 air date may occur.

So far, the sales of the Clockwork Planet Blu-Ray Volume 1 in Japan are not that great. According to MyAnimeList, the first season of the anime did barely make it into the top 20 for sales but barely made the cutoff. However, to put the numbers into perspective, the weekly numbers covered June 19 through 25, whereas the Clockwork Planet Blu-Ray and DVD disc set did not release until June 21, so the anime only has sales numbers for about three-quarters of the week.

All in all, things are not looking great for those wishing the Clockwork Planet Season 2 release date to be confirmed in the future. There is no such thing as a single break-even point for producing anime since there’s a variety of revenue sources but video sales are often used as an early indicator of a hit or flop. In the case of the Clockwork Planet anime, there’s still a chance next week’s disc sales will be better, but so far, the first volume disc is only up to 721 out of the 3,000 some consider to be the dividing line between success and failure.

Assuming the sales justify a second season of Clockwork Planet, the second question is when will the two authors publish enough story to cover Clockwork Planet Season 2? That’s a lingering question mark which is humorously addressed in the Afterword section of the light novel. Apparently, there were delays in the past, so the creators wrote up a scene that featured the two writers squabbling with each other before an editor. The drama ends with the two authors running away in unison after the editor asks about the next novel volume, so perhaps anime fans should take that as a sign.

Clockwork Planet Season 2 Spoilers

A news report at the end of Clockwork Planet Volume 3 neatly summarized the conditions the main characters will face in the upcoming anime season.

“We shall now report on the ‘February 8 incident’. On the 10th of February, the criminal group–commonly known as ‘Second Upsilon’, attacked the Palace, took Princess Houko Hoshinomiya hostage and occupied the ‘Heaven’s Pillar’. Currently, their whereabouts remained unknown. Also, it was determined that the huge weapon used for this terrorist attack might have used electromagnetic technology. Countries around the world have began action in purchasing the latest anti-electromagnetic weapons from the Vacherons.”

The main issue with the first season was that it spent more time on rom-com humor rather than teasing audiences about what’s really going on. Yes, the interaction between the two main characters, never mind the sharp-tongued RyuZU, kept everyone watching, but there were many details from the light novels that probably shouldn’t have been cut.

The motivation of the villain is the primary missing element that likely left anime audiences feeling slightly confused. The anime made it clear that Gennai was a scientist that Naoto and RyuZU ran into while deep underneath the city, but what made him willing to kill using the spider-like war machine Yatsukahagi?

For 31 years, the researcher had worked on fusing clockwork and electromagnetic technology. The research team could not figure out how Y had accomplished the great task of creating a planet composed of clockwork. They were not even sure if they were living within a fantasy or actually living on the planet. The world seemed like an illusion since marvels like RyuZU’s Imaginary Gear and AnchoR’s Perpetual Gear existed.

All evidence of the being Y had been wiped from existence, but Gennai learned several things along the way. The ones who kept rewriting and reassembling the world was humanity yet, despite being able to change the world, humanity would not change. Even Y could not change humanity. On that basis, Gennai decided that Y was not human.

Powerless against gods and demons, Gennai despaired and thus resigned himself to being part of Y’s grand design. The old man had retreated into a hermit life until he saw the young boy being carried by a Y-built automaton. The resulting conversation with RyuZU ended with the automaton refusing to acknowledge his hard work or even answer his questions. Naoto’s responses to his queries reminded the man that when the world ends God could appear in human guise. Similarly, Gennai knew that nobody in the past had managed to break through Unit 1’s master identification, yet here was a boy who had done so.

When Naoto answered Gennai’s final question that was featured in the anime, Gennai decided Naoto must be “that monster Y” impersonating a human. While Gennai did help the boy and the automaton escape, the old man decided to come out of his hiding to confront the being that might be a god.

“If you are really God, you may kill me off,” the old man thought in the light novel.

“But if Y is merely a person who’s lying — bluffing humanity — I want you to know the limits of us ordinary people–the definite limits of humanity. I want you to know your sins, for you denied absolutes, rebuilt the world, and stagnated humanity for a thousand years. And then, you shall see everything, and die in your despair.”

The notion that someone like Naoto could be God may seem silly to anime viewers since this aspect of the character was never fully developed. Even in the light novel, everyone assumed at first the old man tried to “destroy the world because of his dementia.” However, Marie considered the idea seriously when Gennai points out that Naoto somehow managed to create clockwork out of thin air.

“And to me, this Clockwork Planet is full of doubts. It’s impossible for humans to recreate the world using gears,” Gennai said in the novel when he explained his motive for the attack.

“An impossible existence, an impossible technology. We aren’t sure if this world truly exist. In this situation, I think there’s a need to let Y understand such despair and the limits of humanity–I’ll say that this is the motive. I may have lost, but does this mean ordinary humans aren’t able to defy God? If you want to kill me, do so. This world is ultimately an illusion, just a created illusion created by that arrogant God who called himself human. I have no regret.”

When Marie meets Gennai, she also refused to allow the old man to speak for humanity, saying, “Don’t group us along with you. We haven’t despaired. We are different from you.” That response only made Gennai think there must be two of Y.

Obviously, the anime left many things unsaid and yet the motivations of the first season set up the conditions for Clockwork Planet Season 2. After all, the “terrorist group” Second Upsilon is now known to the public at large as the Second Coming of Y. The questions that the light novel’s ending generate linger in the minds of the reader, making them doubt what’s really going on.

The death scene of the villain was also changed dramatically in the anime since the introduction of a major introduction was skipped. In the original version, Gennai is speaking out about the limits of humanity only to be interrupted by a voice coming out of a nearby communicator. The person introduces himself as the “mastermind” behind the conspiracy and comes up with a nickname on the spot, calling himself Omega.

The maniacal Omega talks for very long but only so he can brag, thereby tricking Naoto into confirming his secret, the ability to hear anything from almost anywhere. The mastermind even brags about weapons and machines even Marie (who supposedly has all weapon blueprints memorized) knows nothing about by showcasing a Vacherons-developed tactical fighter jet going faster than the speed of sound (this doesn’t come off as amazing since the anime made the mistake of showing cog-based jets going Mach 5). These jets then drop an anti-electromagnetic weapon that rocks the city and turns the night sky white.

It turns out Omega had predicted what may happen, setting up the scenario so that the world’s nations would come crawling in need of anti-electromagnetic weapons. Omega had planned out all possible eventualities. If the coup d’etat had succeeded, Omega’s prestige as a supporter would have risen. If it failed, Omega can promote weapons useful again electromagnetic weapons. If it worked, the Capital falls, and Omega analyses the tower’s technology needed to start wars. Omega even claims that the rescue of Unit 4 AnchoR by Naoto and friends was “really within expectations” since his organization needed an explanation for the prevention of Kyoto’s collapse.

Omega’s mocking and his mad laughter only ended after he made it clear that Naoto had been lured in by using AnchoR as bait. The mastermind ended his rant by threatening everyone with a challenge, saying, “I’ll spare you if you’re correct, kill you if you’re wrong… well, that’s the correct answer. Except for the one who got it correct, young Naoto, everyone else can die, you know?” At this pronouncement, the villain Gennai’s head exploded in a shower of blood and brains when a sniper targeted everyone.

Needless to say, Omega will definitely be introduced in Clockwork Planet Season 2. It turns out the villains of the first season were simply people being manipulated and now the heroes find themselves cast as villains in the eyes of the world. While it may take writers Tsubaki Himana and Yuu Kamiya time to create more source material, it’ll definitely be interesting to see how the full vision for the story might adapted for the second season. We’ll just have to wait and see. Tick tock. Tick tock.

[Featured Image by Shino/Kodansha Ranobe Imprint]